UNITED NATIONS/EIN ZIVAN, Golan Heights - The head of the Fijian army said on Sunday negotiations for the release of 44 soldiers abducted by an al-Qaida-linked group on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were being pursued as the United Nations said it had no word on the troops whereabouts.

The UN peacekeepers from Fiji were seized by Islamist militants on Thursday, one of several groups attacked in the volatile frontier between Syria and Israel. UN officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity that they were now treating it as a case of kidnapping.